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The Research Autism Cygnet Mentoring project was a two-year pilot study, completed in 2016, which aimed to develop, trial and evaluate a mentoring scheme designed with input from autistic people, their families and supporters. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The mentoring scheme involved 12 matched pairs (mentor/mentee) meeting once per week for one hour, over a six-month period. All mentors attended a training day, led by the principles of personal construct theory and an emancipatory research ethos. The project and training involved significant involvement of autistic people in both its design and delivery.

Participants on the autism spectrum found their mentoring experience very helpful in enabling them to progress towards self-identified goals, and mentees felt empowered by the person-centred ethos and the methods employed on the project. However, a number of aspects of the mentoring project have been identified that require further investigation, including: caution over offering mentoring without formal structures, boundary setting, supervision, flexibility and the matching of mentees with mentors.

The project has highlighted the potential benefits of time-limited goal-orientated mentoring and the negligible evidence base underpinning current mentoring practice with adults on the autism spectrum. In order for the project to realise its emancipatory aim, there is a need for a large-scale quantitative study and a health-economics analysis to provide the necessary evidence base for mentoring to be recommended as a cost-effective intervention with clear benefits for individual wellbeing.

The education of children with autism spectrum conditions deserves a fresh look, for several reasons. First, it is unclear whether some approaches ‐ such as applied behavioural analysis (ABA) ‐ are simply shaping behaviour but not fundamentally leading to conceptual development. Second, educational methods which depend on external reinforcement or reward are ethically questionable so methods that are intrinsically rewarding would be preferable. Third, many educational approaches to autism have proceeded without a clear theoretical rationale. This article summarises a new two‐factor psychological theory of autism spectrum conditions, presents some examples of educational methods that are based on this theory, and that are intrinsically rewarding and argues that such methods may be more autism‐friendly.

Purpose: We critically examine the idea of neurodiversity, or the uniqueness of all brains, as the foundation for the neurodiversity movement, which began as an autism rights movement. We explore the neurodiversity movement's potential to support cross-disability alliances that can transform cultures.

Methods/Approach: A neurodiverse team reviewed literature about the history of the neurodiversity movement and associated participatory research methodologies and drew from our experiences guiding programs led, to varying degrees, by neurodivergent people. We highlight two programs for autistic university students, one started by and for autistics and one developed in collaboration with autistic and nonautistic students. These programs are contrasted with a national self-help group started by and for stutterers that is inclusive of “neurotypicals.”

Findings: Neurodiversity-aligned practices have emerged in diverse communities. Similar benefits and challenges of alliance building within versus across neurotypes were apparent in communities that had not been in close contact. Neurodiversity provides a framework that people with diverse conditions can use to identify and work together to challenge shared forms of oppression. However, people interpret the neurodiversity movement in diverse ways. By honing in on core aspects of the neurodiversity paradigm, we can foster alliances across diverse perspectives.

Implications/ Values: Becoming aware of power imbalances and working to rectify them is essential for building effective alliances across neurotypes. Sufficient space and time are needed to create healthy alliances. Participatory approaches, and approaches solely led by neurodivergent people, can begin to address concerns about power and representation within the neurodiversity movement while shifting public understanding.

This chapter explores the importance of early autism spectrum disorder (ASD) assessment and diagnosis to facilitate early treatment. This chapter will have a particular focus on ASD assessment and diagnosis within a Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) context. We propose using a Cultural Competence framework to process, analyze, assessment, and diagnosis results/findings. BME assessments/diagnoses can be delayed by up to 18 months longer when compared to Whites.

ASD Assessment aims to assess certain developmental traits in individuals to identify ASD which is a developmental disability. Autism is a spectrum condition which can manifest differently in each diagnosed individual. There are core features necessary for an ASD diagnosis to be made. These include among other traits: poor eye contact, abnormality in body language: for example, gestures, difficulties with social communication and social interaction, often they exhibit repetitive patterns of behavior, have obsessional interests, rigid thinking patterns, and have an aversion to certain sounds and textures and an unusual interest in sensory satisfaction.

The Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ) is a widely used tool to quantify autistic traits in the general population. This study aims to report the distribution, group differences and factor structure of autistic traits in Indian general population. The work also assesses the criterion validity of AQ across three patient group samples – autism spectrum disorder (ASD), obsessive-compulsive disorder and social anxiety disorder.

In this study, psychometric properties of the adapted AQ were assessed among 450 neurotypical university students matched for age. Confirmatory factor analysis was done to see if the adapted AQ fits the original factor structure. Test–retest, internal consistency reliability and criterion validity were found out. Group differences (gender and field of study) in AQ were also assessed.

Autistic traits were found to be continuously distributed in the population, and patterns of group differences were consistent with previous studies. The adapted AQ had five factors resembling the original factor structure with a good fit, and 38 items instead of the original 50 items. Acceptable reliability coefficients were demonstrated along with criterion validity across clinical groups.

This work is the first to present the pattern of distribution and factor structure of autistic traits among neurotypical adults from Eastern India, a culturally different population, as well as a reliable and valid tool to assess autistic traits in Bengali, a language with 300 million speakers. The findings add to the growing literature on AQ measurement and the concept of autism as a quantitative trait, examined outside of the western samples.

This chapter deals with online consumer behavior from a psychological perspective. It integrates psychological findings and online behavior, trying to shed light on the mind of the costumer. The chapter explores how customers’ emotions influence their experience on a website. The chapter explains how the customers’ thought processes, emotions, and psychology influence their purchase intention and how online retailers should respond to increase sales and conversion.